Brazil exports first load of biodiesel to Rotterdam port

The Port of Rotterdam has received the first load of biodiesel ever to be exported from Brazil for commercial purposes.

Brazilian biofuel producer BSBios shipped 22 tonnes of biodiesel to the port after it received authorisation from the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels to export the fuel back in 2008.

'BSBios has tried to make partnerships official to export biofuel,' explains the company's CEO Erasmo Carlos Battistella. 'There are many difficulties, with relation to taxes mainly, which cost Brazil and make negotiations difficult with the European market. This is an important advance we need to fulfil to demonstrate that Brazil can also export biodiesel,' he says.

BSBios has two plants, one in Marialva, Parana and Passo Fundo in Rio Grande do Sul, with a total production capacity of 350 million litres a year.